Case Number 01118

The Adjuster

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All Rise...

The Charge

Sex…Power…Obsession.

Opening Statement

A stilted, offbeat film from independent writer/director Atom Egoyan, The
Adjuster sacrifices clarity and compelling drama in favor of dreary artistry
and emotionless acting. MGM takes the path of least resistance with an
anamorphic video transfer, but otherwise lives down to our expectations with a
nearly featureless disc.

Facts of the Case

Noah (Elias Koteas) is an insurance adjuster who really gets into his work.
He gets into his client's lives, helping them to make the most of their
misfortune with a big fat insurance claim, finding them alternate housing at a
local motel, talking with them, charming them, and eventually into their beds.
His wife, Hera (Arsinée Khanjian), works as a censor, editing the most
objectionable parts from pornographic films, all the while taping the uncut
movies for her own personal use. They live with their son, Simon (Armen
Kokorian) and Seta (Rose Sarkisyan), Hera's sister, in an isolated model home
that is all that remains of a bankrupt developer and his dream.

Soon Noah's life takes a turn when an alleged film producer, Bubba (Maury
Chaykin), and his actress wife, Mimi (Gabrielle Rose), make Noah and Hera an
offer for the use of their house as a film location. Uprooting his family to
stay in the motel where Noah directs his clients only leads Noah to drift
further from his family and aggravate the problems in his life. When he finds
out that Bubba and Mimi are not what they seemed to be, the damage is done, both
in terms of feelings and property.

The Evidence

The Adjuster is the sort of film that pretentious film students,
independent film snobs, and trendy pop-culture philosophers love. Waxing
rapturous about Egoyan's often striking framing and imagery, or deconstructing
the meanings of the sexual aberrations and predilections of the characters,
there is plenty of Starbucks coffeehouse fodder for rarefied debate. Now, if you
love to analyze a film down to its component molecules, puzzle out murky
motives, and approach a film as an abstract, intellectual enterprise, The
Adjuster should meet your needs. On the other hand, if you are looking for a
film that entertains you, delights you with intelligent characters, crisp
dialogue, and a tightly woven story, you should look elsewhere.

The odd thought that popped into my head part-way through The
Adjuster was a fragment of dialogue spoken by Hannibal Lecter, a man not
noted for being a film critic. ."…[T]edious, sticky fumblings in the
back seat of [a car]…" That sums up my overall reaction to The
Adjuster, as a film tedious in length, stuffed beyond capacity with long
pauses, meaningless looks, and a glacial pace, heavily seasoned with sexual
behavior, infidelity, pornography, exhibitionism, and so on. In my last review
of Live Flesh, I criticized the film for
its incomprehensibility. For The Adjuster, I was so bored that I did not
want to comprehend its facets. The only thing worse than sitting through
a tedious film is having to analyze and describe the tedium.

The disappointment of The Adjuster is slightly moderated by the
caliber of some members of the cast. However, a substantial portion of the
acting seems to be of the subdued, drug-induced haze sort, particularly for lead
actor Elias Koteas (The Thin Red
Line, Gattaca, Exotica) and his on-screen wife Arsinée
Khanjian (The Sweet Hereafter, Exotica), Egoyan's real life wife.
Koteas begins to show depth and life late in The Adjuster, but by then,
it is too little, too late. Khanjian made me wonder if she only got the job
because she sleeps with the writer/director.

On the other hand, Gabrielle Rose (Double Jeopardy, Timecop) has some over-the-top fun with her
outrageous character, and Maury Chaykin ("Nero Wolfe," Mystery, Alaska, WarGames) is, as always, a delightful
font of low-key acting and subtle humor. In a smaller role, Don McKellar (eXistenZ, Exotica), is
brilliantly creepy as Tyler, the young censor. Finally, any fans of the
television "La Femme Nikita" will hail the appearance of David Hemblen
(known to LFN fans as "George") as the imperial, unsettling head
censor, Bert.

The anamorphic video transfer is acceptable. The limited palette seems
intentionally muted, but adequately saturated. Sharpness is moderate, flesh
tones accurate, but blacks are a bit gray at times. The primary flaws of the
transfer are recurrent showers of dirt/film defects and very noticeable and
repeated edge enhancement artifacting.

The Dolby Digital 2.0 track may very nearly as well have been a mono track.
Music comes forth from the front mains, but little else does, leaving nearly
everything else to the center channel. I noticed only the faintest of sound from
the rears and did not detect any perceptible subwoofer support. The already
unobtrusive dialogue is quietly mixed.

The Rebuttal Witnesses

As expected, MGM lets us have an anamorphic video transfer, but aside from
the expected theatrical trailer, gives us zero extra content. Relatively
obscure, difficult films like The Adjuster beg even louder for extra
content, particularly a commentary track or featurette, but in a Catch-22, are
precisely the sort of niche titles that MGM sees as having limited profit
potential unworthy of the expense. Sad, but given their poor track record
outside of the Bond films, expected of MGM.

Closing Statement

An Egoyan fan may find enough to like in The Adjuster to justify a
rental or ($20 retail) purchase, but I doubt that an average viewer with middle
of the road film tastes is going to find much here to like. Caveat emptor!

The Verdict

Until we can get the judge to wake up, we must adjourn without a verdict. If
the judge were awake, I am sure he would yet again find MGM guilty of a criminal
lack of extras.

[Editor's Note: Apparently, Alliance Atlantis has released a Canadian DVD
of The Adjuster. It features an Atom Egoyan commentary track, a
featurette, and an interview with Atom Egoyan. The box indicates it's in 1.85:1
anamorphic, so unless that's a typo it's been cropped. A trade-off, I suppose.
We've only been able to find it listed at one Canadian retailer,
Videomatica.]